Managing Red Composting Worms and Worm Castings

Updated on May 25, 2011

Red Wiggler worms

Raising Red Composting Worms

Red composting worms loves and flourishes on rotting
environments, often found under cow or horse manures. Raising red composting
worms won't be a problem if your family produces lots of organic wastes in the
kitchen such as Vegetable and fruit peelings, left over from the fridge, bones,
Tea bags, coffee filters, meat, egg shells etc. or lawn wastes i.e. dried
fallen leaves, grass clippings, grinded wood etc. any organic materials, Red
composting worms will eat it and do the job. In the summer when it's fairly
warm, Red composting worms will double their activities in mating and will eat
nonstop. Red composting worms will eat up about 1 and a half times of their own
body weights daily and will produce worm castings up to 75% of their body
weights. Think of it, you're cutting down on your garbage while you produce
worm castings to organically fertilize your garden soil.

Red Composting Worm Bin

Bins or worm farms that are used to house red composting worms or any
Epigeic worms need to be wide and shallow. Assorted materials for beddings like
dry leaves, grass clippings, shredded regular papers or cardboards are ideal
and must be fairly moisten. Avoid getting your beddings wet or soggy because it
will conflict the air flow for your red composting worms. When this happens,
just add and toss more beddings that are highly absorbent like shredded
cardboards or papers. On managing worm compost from your worm composter bin, changing the bedding if needed, is simple. Before placing
their food for the day, make a space for the new beddings by pushing the old
ones in one side. Then add the fresh beddings on the other side with the food.
Surely, all of the red composting worms will go to the fresh beddings where the
food is at and you can collect the old bedding.

Red Composting Worms and their Worm Castings

Red Wiggler worms (Eisenia Foetida) are at the top of the
heap in producing excellent compost materials because of their superb qualities
as red composting worms. Red composting worms produces more potent worm
castings or organic fertilizer that is rich in nutrients for plants' growth.
Red composting worms producesworm castings that are 5 Times Richer in Nitrogen
than the typical the "hot" compost. Plants use Nitrogen mainly for
foliage growth, flowering and fruit bearing. Red worm castings are 7 Times
Richer in Phosphates which is very important for the plants' roots and flowers.
It is 11 Times Richer in Potassium that also helps in plant growth, immune
system and overall health of plants. Red composting worms being classified as
Epigeic means, these worms won't burrow any deeper than 12" from the soil
surface making them excellent composters while doing a great job in keeping the
soil loose and aerated.

Making Worm Tea

Making Worm Tea with Worm Castings

From worm castings, one can make worm tea to use as a potent
liquid fertilizer best for indoor potted plants and backyard gardening as well.
The materials to use for making worm tea are:

Worm composting with Worm castings

An Old sink or anything that is improvised

Screen to be placed as filter below the sink

Bucket to collect the worm tea.

Water

Just place the worm composting with the worm castings inside
the sink with the bucket placed underneath it to collect the juices. Add water
and let it soak for a while as the juices flow into the bucket. After squeezing
all the worm tea juices, the compost will still be a great soil additive or
soil conditioner. Worm tea can then be poured into a spraying bottle, directly
spraying the liquid worm tea into your potted plants' soil or garden soil.

Your
number one online resource for composting or for organic gardening
supplies. We offer a variety of quality vermicomposting equipment
including red worms, compost bins, organic fertilizer, organic weed
control and organic pest control. Go Green!

Uncle Jim's Worm Farm

Uncle Jim is an expert on Red Wiggler worms.
Raising them for more than 20 years now, he has been promoting the
importance of the roles that the worms play in our environment. That's
why he chose to raise Red Wiggler worms in a farm to share and promote the benefits of these nature's little wonders!

Uncle Jim's seasoned knowledge about worms and gardening has developed many tools for worm composting and gardening that are based on 20 years of experience.

More by this Author

Adding a worm composting bin unit in your household or
garden will be a great asset. It will reduce your total waste disposal amount by converting organic kitchen or lawn garbage wastes into a rich natural
fertilizer...

Red Wiggler worms are those
that farmers and gardeners alike are most likely to consider when planning to have worm composting
at home. Having been packed with a lot of nutrients, this kind
of worm has definitely...

We all know that Red Wiggler worms (Eisenia Foetida) are amongst the most favorite worm specie in worm composting and organic gardening. Let's get to know these amazing little nature's wonders a little bit more as we...